Chapter 5

-Chester-

Mom, Jeremiah and I all sit in silence on the car journey home from school after the meeting with the principal and Avi’s parents. Mom is upset with us, I’m pretty sure. She’s probably worried that we were bullying the new kid, but to be honest she should know us better than that.

“Mom? Are you…disappointed in us?” Jeremiah asks, and I hold my breath, waiting for her answer. Mom lets out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “No, I’m not. I’m just worried. We’re very lucky that the kid was so adamant about how you two weren’t in the wrong, because his parents had enough grounds to get us in a lot of trouble. Make sure you’re nice to that kid, alright? Don’t let anyone bully him,” Mom says firmly.

I frown, fiddling with the sleeve of Avi’s jacket.

“It’s not like Chester did anything wrong anyway…it was me that broke Hendy’s hearing aid. I just feel like big oaf,” Jeremiah grumbles, slouching down in his seat slightly. Leaning forwards, I place my hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Avi really didn’t seem to mind. I think he was trying to avoid a scene more than anything.”

“And a scene is exactly what we gave him…” Jeremiah trails off, and I grimace. He’s right.

“Don’t worry Mom, we’re not going to be horrible to him. Avi is really nice and he and Jeremiah are basically already best friends,” I admit, leaning back in my seat and pulling the jacket more securely around myself. It’s black denim, with a fluffy inside that is literally the softest thing I’ve ever felt. Maybe I’ll steal it from Avi permanently…

But no, that would be depriving him of it. So as soft as it is…as nice as it smells- woah calm down Chester let’s not be creepy now ok?!

When we eventually make it home, I don’t get more than a few steps inside before Jeremiah is interrogating me about the jacket. “New jacket, Chester? I like it,” my brother comments, wiggling his eyebrows. “In fact, it looks distinctly similar to the one that Hendy was wearing earlier…”

Rolling my eyes, I unbutton the jacket but don’t take it off just yet. Might as well enjoy it for as long as possible, considering that I’ll have to give it back tomorrow. At least that means I’ll have the chance to see Avi tomorrow, and talk to him.

“Yeah I was just cold and Avi let me borrow his jacket. Nice guy,” I say nonchalantly, but Jeremiah smirks at me without missing a single beat.

“You think he’s hot.”

“You think he’s hot too,” I retort, crossing my arms and glaring at my brother. Jeremiah snorts, walking up to me and ruffling my hair. “Yeah but I like girls. You like boys. And Avi Hendricks is a boy,” he states.

Flicking his forehead, I push past Jeremiah and go find our mom in the kitchen. She instantly pulls me into a hug, rubbing my back. Resting my head against her chest, I let out a long sigh. Finally pulling back from the hug, I fiddle with my horseshoe septum piercing absentmindedly.

“Chester, I’m a little worried,” Mom admits, wringing her hands together. Cocking my head to one side, I rub my arm. “What about? The situation with Avi, or something else?” I ask, filling up a glass of water at the sink.

“About that, yes, but also…about you. You and Jeremiah - but mainly you,” she says slowly. Raising a pierced eyebrow at her, I wait for my mom to continue. “Next week, it’s your and Jeremiah’s birthdays. Obviously you’re both turning seventeen, and…your father wants to be there.”

“Absolutely not,” I reply instantly. That piece of shit isn’t coming near either Jeremiah or me. And definitely not near my mom.

“It’s not that simple…legally, he’s allowed to,” Mom sighs, rubbing her temples, a sign that she has a headache coming on.

“You do realise that he would literally call me a slur, right?” I point out, frowning.

“I know. I won’t let him, and I don’t want him here any more than you do. But I’m just warning you that I might not be able to stop him from seeing you and Jeremiah, so…maybe for the day you’ll have to avoid home. Just until I can convince him to go away.”

Going to find my little brother, I repeat back to him everything that Mom just told me. Jeremiah instantly sits up from where he was lying on his back in bed. “The fuck he’s coming to see us. No way.” Jeremiah’s tone makes it obvious that this isn’t up for debate. Not that I’d want it to be, anyway.

“Yeah well obviously I’m not his biggest fan - I mean he and Mom literally split up because of me and he resents me for that because he’s a dickhead, but we need to come up with a way to stop him from visiting,” I muse, not wanting to leave my mom alone to try and convince him to go home. He’ll probably just try and win her back, and I guess a sad part of me is a little worried that she would listen to him.

“Chester?” Jeremiah says quietly, and I glance back over at him, sitting down on the bed next to him. “You know that Mom and I are always here for you, right? Just because Dad is a shitty transphobe doesn’t mean that we won’t stick by your side. You, me, Mom and Ames- we’re the real family here. That guy has never been part of us.”

Giving Jeremiah a small smile, I nod. “Yeah, I know. I guess I’m still just a little…raw, about the whole thing.”

Next week will be my first birthday hopefully without my dad. The day after my sixteenth birthday, I finally came out to my parents about being trans. I thought they’d take me more seriously, if I was a bit older and was less likely to come across as a ‘misguided and confused teenage girl’ but apparently, that view was still held by one of my parents.

My mom was an angel. She has always been so supportive, and helped me completely revamp my whole wardrobe and appearance - even did research on binders with me - and had no issue about having a second son. 

My dad…was less of an angel. He was sure I’d change my mind eventually, and regret ‘living the lie’ that I apparently was, when presenting male. Even though the real lie I’d been living was when I pretended to be a cis woman. He was sure that I was just doing this for attention, and to be a nuisance. 

And he made sure to remind me of how inconvenient it all was for him.

So Mom ended up divorcing him, around half a year ago. They still talk - or Dad tries to contact Mom anyway, and she just ignores him. She was disgusted that he would reject his own child like that, and ridicule me both to my face and behind my back. 

I’m pretty sure the two of them argued every single day for those six months after I came out.

Jeremiah went above and beyond. I’d mentioned to him that I felt like a boy, way before I ever went to my parents about it. And he started calling me ‘big brother’ and calling me a guy and all kinds of other things that at the time, was the only external validation I was receiving towards how I felt on the inside. 

Because even though I still presented female at that time, Jeremiah still saw me as the guy that I am.

We’ve always been best friends, but over the past few years we’ve grown even closer. He’s fiercely protective over me, and his friends are too, which is sweet. When I first came out at school, I had a few…problems. But being friends with Jeremiah and his group was still just as easy as it always had been, and they all made sure to correct people on my pronouns and name, even when I wasn’t around to be upset by other people’s words.

So it’s been really good. I don’t deal with bullies anymore, now that they’ve kind of given up on trying to harass me, and I have a good tight-knit friend group and a loving family.

Most of a family, anyway. Dad isn’t included in our family anymore, and while it made me sad to begin with…I know it’s for the better.

He doesn’t deserve to be in our lives.